


the life and times of an inanimate object

by kingdra (aroceu)



Category: Super Junior
Genre: AU, Community: kpop_prompts, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-15
Updated: 2010-09-15
Packaged: 2017-10-28 08:35:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/305949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aroceu/pseuds/kingdra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is an umbrella that is not Kyuhyun's.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the life and times of an inanimate object

**Author's Note:**

> kpop_prompts @lj #10: umbrella

This is an umbrella.

This is an umbrella that Kyuhyun uses.

This is an umbrella that Kyuhyun uses when it rains. This is an umbrella that Kyuhyun uses when it is too bright. This is an umbrella that Kyuhyun uses to protect himself.

This is an umbrella that Kyuhyun uses to hide himself, when he does not want to come through his family’s fighting, when he hears loud noises, when the world seems like it is out of love—Kyuhyun hides. He hides with his umbrella.

This is an umbrella.

This is an umbrella that is not Kyuhyun’s.

\--

Kyuhyun found the umbrella in the streets, where everything is found, everything is trash—but this umbrella is perfect, there is something about it that does not make it trash. Kyuhyun took it home and raised it and loved it like his own.

Kyuhyun values his umbrella more than anything else in the world.

\--

Kyuhyun meets Jongwoon on a sunny day when he does not have his umbrella. Jongwoon is outside in a courtyard outside of a university, near Kyuhyun’s school.

“What are you working on?” Kyuhyun asks suddenly, startling Jongwoon. He’s looking at his paper and it looks like calculus. Kyuhyun enjoys calculus.

Jongwoon shoots his head up to look at Kyuhyun, surprised. But he smiles, somewhat amused at Kyuhyun’s curiosity. “Calculus,” he answers casually.

“You did the sigma notation wrong,” Kyuhyun states, observing the paper. He points at question seventeen. Jongwoon stares at it, before picking up his pencil and erasing it.

“Thanks,” he tells Kyuhyun, voice threaded with awe. “Do you go here?”

“No. High school.” Kyuhyun points a little down the road.

Jongwoon nods and smiles. “Nice to meet you,” he tells Kyuhyun, sticking his hand out.

Kyuhyun takes his hand. There is something familiar about it.

\--

Kyuhyun doesn’t think he’d meet Jongwoon again, but he does. He meets him a few days later, long enough to satisfy him but not as long to forget about him.

It’s on another day where it looks perfectly sunny and the sky is clear, and Kyuhyun finds it odd, since _Didn’t the weather say it was going to rain today?_ It’s in a little park outside of his neighborhood that Kyuhyun likes to go to, when his family is fighting and is why he is there now.

Jongwoon is on the bench, scribbling in a notebook when Kyuhyun appears, and Jongwoon looks up at the noise. He smiles when he sees it is Kyuhyun.

“It’s you again,” he says to Kyuhyun (Kyuhyun has an internal victory that he has been recognized). “Cho Kyuhyun, right?”

“Yes.” Kyuhyun nods, acknowledging him. “And Kim Jongwoon.”

Jongwoon smiles. “What are you doing here? I’ve never seen anyone here before?”

“I…” Kyuhyun hesitates. “I come here when my house is loud.”

“Oh.” The man watches Kyuhyun as if trying to figure him out. Kyuhyun wonders if he knows what he is talking about.

Then suddenly, Jongwoon speaks again. “Do you live near here, then?”

Kyuhyun feels like this is an odd question, and he should feel wary about it. But strangely, he is not. “Yes,” he replies, looking at Jongwoon.

“Oh. I live quite a few hours fro here. I just look for quiet places to work and I found this a few weeks ago,” Jongwoon tells him. He holds up a notebook, showing it to Kyuhyun.

Kyuhyun peers at it. “You write music?” he asks Jongwoon. And when Jongwoon nods, Kyuhyun chuckles a bit. “Do you sing as well?”

“Yes. Well.” Jongwoon blushes and ducks his head. “Occasionally.”

Kyuhyun watches the red in Jongwoon’s cheeks and thinks of the shade of his umbrella.

\--

The next time they meet is not a coincidence at all, but rather, predetermined by Kyuhyun. Kyuhyun makes the assumption that Jongwoon will be at his university again, and he is.

Jongwoon sense Kyuhyun approaching before Kyuhyun can say anything, and Jongwoon chuckles and says, “Fancy meeting you here again.” Kyuhyun blushes, but is not ashamed.

“I was wondering—” Kyuhyun clears his throat. “I-I was wondering, if you wanted to have lunch with me.” It’s only one in the afternoon; it’s not like they could have dinner.

Jongwoon seems surprised, but to Kyuhyun’s relief, not offended. “You mean like a date?” he teases, chuckling, and turning look at Kyuhyun in the eye.

Kyuhyun blushes, then curses himself for blushing. “O-Of course not, this is only the third time I’ve met you.”

Jongwoon just grins. “You know what they say. Third time’s the charm.”

The sound of Jongwoon’s voice reminds Kyuhyun the pitter patter of rain.

\--

Their lunch is in a café, which is not a date, Kyuhyun reminds Jongwoon (and himself), goes along perfectly, smoothly awkward but leaving Kyuhyun content enough that he realizes it’s heaven. He wants to do it again and again because he can think of nothing better than sitting there across from Jongwoon in their booth and talk about little things, like frogs and the weather and the color green and ballpoint pens. And he’s looking at Jongwoon’s dark gaze and listening to his melodious voice speak, and enjoying his fresh smell and everything is so, so perfect.

And when they depart, Kyuhyun definitely doesn’t feel like it’s the third time, and he almost forgets about his umbrella.

\--

Several of their non-lunch dates (which Kyuhyun finds out that Jongwoon immensely enjoys also, which pleases him) and a few conversations about black-and-white photographs later, Kyuhyun finds himself being invited to Jongwoon’s apartment. Kyuhyun is surprised; he’s lived with his own (hectic) family his whole life, and he surprised at his invitation, but he trusts Jongwoon so he goes.

The apartment is small, a light red (the same color of Jongwoon’s cheeks (and Kyuhyun’s umbrella)) with several but enough furniture. Jongwoon’s bedroom only has a desk and a bed, but his living room holds a small television and a whole rack of compact discs. Kyuhyun wants to go over and look through them; music has always interested hi.

“What do you think?” Jongwoon asks by Kyuhyun’s side, as if seeking his approval.

“I like it,” Kyuhyun comments; but he does, he does like it.

Jongwoon beams in satisfaction. “I’m glad,” he tells Kyuhyun. “Look, those are my turtles in the corner, that’s a book with all my uni stuff, that’s my kitchen—not like it has any use, I go out to eat every day—”

“What’s that?” Kyuhyun points to an interesting instrument on the floor, not too far away from them. It looks oddly empty.

“Oh.” Jongwoon glances at it as well. “That’s my umbrella holder. Except I lost mine a while ago. Still haven’t gotten a new one yet.”

Kyuhyun frowns. He thinks about how he would feel if he lost his umbrella. The thought is almost unbearable.

But then suddenly Jongwoon grabs his hand and Kyuhyun forgets about it, and he thinks about how Jongwoon’s hands feel like the handle of his umbrella, and he feels like he’s in a dream and he doesn’t want to be woken up.

\--

 _Dammit, why won’t it rain?_ Kyuhyun thinks when he is alone.

He misses the feel of his umbrella, misses having it guard him. But it hasn’t rained since Kyuhyun met Jongwoon.

_Dammit, why won’t it rain?_

When he’s around Jongwoon, he forgets about his umbrella.

\--

Kyuhyun hates how the more he stays at home, the more his parents and his sister fight, and he doesn’t want them fighting. He wishes they were a peaceful family.

One night it gets so loud and conflicting that Kyuhyun comes in, to intervene. He yells, “Stop!” and tries to come between them, forcing himself to try and stop the fight. But then someone slaps him across the cheek and it is deathly silent, and Kyuhyun can’t believe this, and he’s hurt, but not physically, but he’s in so much pain and he runs, he runs out of his house and into the streets.

He’s not quite sure where he’s going and he thinks he’s going to Jongwoon’s apartment, but then Jongwoon appears out of nowhere and his eyes are like plastic, held up by wires, protecting him. And Jongwoon sees him and comes to him and suddenly he’s holding him, asking him what’s wrong, and holding him, and comforting him, and Kyuhyun’s crying, crying, but crying in arms that are _holding_ him. And Kyuhyun cannot think, and thinks nothing, nothing except that Jongwoon’s are like his umbrella, protecting him.

\--

It’s after a few days when Kyuhyun hasn’t seen Jongwoon and it starts raining again. Kyuhyun is delighted because this means he can use his umbrella (but he thinks it is not as lovely Jongwoon, and his umbrella isn’t as wonderful as he remembers.)

So Kyuhyun spends most of his day outside, underneath his umbrella, but something seems missing, something feels so off. And Kyuhyun doesn’t know what it is.

Kyuhyun thinks about Jongwoon; how lovely it is to be with him, to talk with him, to hear his voice. To see the smile in his eyes, the laughter on his face, and he wonders how can such a person exist. He thinks about the times he spends with Jongwoon, when the sun his shining, and Kyuhyun loves the sunshine. And he loves—being with?—Jongwoon, because he feels nothing else in the world except happiness, no rain falling in his life. And it is not butterflies that Kyuhyun feels in the bottom of his stomach, but rather, small, free birds.

“Kyuhyun?”

Kyuhyun almost jumps at the sudden sound of his name. He turns around to see Jongwoon, blinking at him. His gaze is fixed on the umbrella.

“Jongwoon!” Kyuhyun smiles. “What are you doing here? You’re all wet.”

Jongwoon nods, but doesn’t reply to this. Instead, he continues staring at the instrument guarding Kyuhyun from the rain. “That looks familiar,” he murmurs thoughtfully, but loud enough for Kyuhyun to hear.

Kyuhyun furrows his eyebrows. “It does?”

“…yes.” Jongwoon frowns a little. “Where did you get it?”

“I found it,” Kyuhyun responds. “In the city. A while ago.”

“I-I think it’s mine.” Jongwoon looks at the umbrella closely. “Yes. I’m sure it is.”

“Oh.” Kyuhyun’s gaze falls. It’s not that he doesn’t want to give the umbrella back; he is embarrassed for taking it from him.

Jongwoon reaches out to him, and Kyuhyun gets up to hand it back. Both their hands clasp around the handle of the umbrella.

Then, suddenly, Jongwoon leans in and kisses him on the mouth.

And the rain stops.


End file.
